netdev - Re: ethtool needs a new maintainer

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Date:	Mon, 4 Jul 2016 16:24:55 +0200
From:	Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>
To:	"John W. Linville" <linville@...driver.com>
Cc:	Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>,
	netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: ethtool needs a new maintainer

Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 03:51:47PM CEST, linville@...driver.com wrote:
>On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 06:11:41PM +0200, Ben Hutchings wrote:
>> I've become steadily less enthusiastic and less responsive as a
>> maintainer over the past year or so.  I no longer work on networking
>> regularly, so it takes a lot more time to get into the right state of
>> mind to think about ethtool code, while I have other demands on my time
>> that tend to take priority.
>> 
>> So, I would like to find a new maintainer to take over as soon as
>> possible.  Ideally the new maintainer would have previous contributions
>> to ethtool and an existing account on kernel.org so that they can push
>> to the git repository and the home page.  But neither of those is
>> essential.  Please reply if you're interested.
>
>I would like to take this responsibility. My previous contributions
>to ethtool are meager, but I think my skills and interests are suited
>to the task.  Plus, I already have a kernel.org account... :-)
>
>> I was thinking of adding a TODO file to the repository, but it's really
>> for the new maintainer to decide what to do.  So here's my list as a
>> suggestion:
>> 
>> * Add regression test coverage for all sub-commands with complex logic
>> 
>> * Internationalise output and error messages
>> 
>> * Build a libethtool that handles all the API quirks and fallbacks for
>>   old kernel versions.  This might help people writing language
>>   bindings or other utilities that use the ethtool API.
>> 
>> * Provide a 'cleaned up' ethtool (under some other name) that has:
>>   - More conventional sub-command syntax, i.e. no '-'/'--' prefix
>>   - More consistent output formatting
>
>That seems like a reasonable start for a TODO list. I'll bet there
>are a few people out there with other suggestions as well...?

Before that, I would like to see ethtool migrate to use generic
netlink. Then, the new tool would be needed anyway, should exist within
iproute2 package and have similar command line syntax.

I have some ideas about the gennetlink ethtool, have to find some time
to implement some initial part of it.